I first interviewed Daniel Santos a few years ago about his “Go Giver” approach to networking, because I thought it was such a thoughtful, generous way of approaching networking. (Note: Here’s a more recent interview where he talks about his approach to networking.)

I asked Daniel to do an interview because I wanted to share his approach with my clients because it could help those who are reluctant to network because they misunderstand it as a self-centered way of using people to advance one’s career.

It’s a lot easier to reach out to people when we understand that our intention is always to look for ways to add value and help others.

Here’s a link to my post on Daniel talking about networking.

When we did the original interview, Daniel shared stories from his career journey.

That’s when I knew I wanted to do a more complete interview, in part because he embodies the qualities I’ve heard managers say repeatedly over the years they hunger for in employees, such as:

• Initiative—Not simply waiting to be given the next assignment or only doing tasks that are in the job description, but instead always looking for problems to solve and looking for ways to provide more value.

• Adaptability –Not just accepting change, but charging towards it (His approach to change will be part of another interview excerpt).

If you’re interested in advancing in your career, you also want to take note of Daniel’s attitude towards learning.

Being committed to, and skilled at, lifelong learning has often been identified as the most important skill to have in today’s economy, and is obviously even more important with the explosion of AI that will make many jobs obsolete.

Between this excerpt and the one I’ll share in a future post, you’ll get some great advice on how to be an “Employee of Choice” and differentiate yourself from the competition when you are either applying for a job or a promotion.

In this interview excerpt, you’ll hear how Daniel molded a job into a new job that enabled him to provide exponentially more value to his employer, and how that helped him advance professionally.

You’ll also hear him talk about his unconventional approach to getting a job—aiming low to hit high—and how doing that led to him getting the job he really wanted.

You will also hear about how his generous approach to networking resulted in a phone call out of the blue from his future manage, because of the reputation he had created.

That part of the interview is a great reminder of the importance of thinking about your personal brand and how that precedes you and either closes or opens doors.

Besides using this video for your own professional development, I encourage you to share it with any young professional—especially any new grads in your life—who would like to learn more about how to be an “Employee of Choice.”